Georgia Tech Baseball Opens 2017 Season this Weekend

Feb. 16, 2017

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech baseball opens up its 2017 season with the Atlanta Challenge this weekend at Russ Chandler Stadium on The Flats. The Yellow Jackets will host a trio of teams for opening weekend in BYU on Friday, Marshall on Saturday and Western Michigan on Sunday.

FOLLOW THE ACTION LIVE

• The three games this weekend will be video streamed live on the ACC Network Extra (links are at the top of the page).
• Friday and Saturday’s games will also be broadcast live on WREK 91.1 FM and online at WREK.org, while Sunday afternoon’s contest will be streamed online at WREK.org.
• Live stats for each contest can be found on the baseball schedule page at RamblinWreck.com.

LEADING OFF

• Since 1994, head coach Danny Hall’s first season on The Flats, the Yellow Jackets are 22-1 in home openers and have won 11 straight openers at Russ Chandler Stadium.
• Coach Danny Hall is in his 24th season as the head coach of the Yellow Jackets and his 30th overall as a collegiate head coach.
• Georgia Tech returns 22 letterwinners, including seven starters in the field and four pitchers that made at least five starts on the mound from last year’s team that went 38-25 overall and went to the NCAA Regionals.
• Georgia Tech will play not one, but two opponents for the first-time ever on opening weekend in 2017. The Yellow Jackets will play both BYU (Feb. 17) and Marshall (Feb. 18) on the diamond for the first time in the program’s history.
• Junior Kel Johnson received a number of 2017 preseason accolades including being named to the 2017 NCBWA Preseason All-American Second Team, and the 2017 Perfect Game Preseason ACC All-Conference Team. He was also recently named to the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List.
• With freshman Xzavion Curry’s start on opening day Friday afternoon versus BYU he will become just the second true freshman to start a season opener in Tech history (since 1967-68 when true freshmen were allowed to play). The other opening day true freshman to start for Tech was Kris Wilson back in 1995.
• The Yellow Jackets have two big holes to fill in the middle of their lineup with the loss of Matt Gonzalez to the MLB Draft and Tristin English to an injury. Gonzalez led the Jackets in hitting (.378), hits (93), home runs (11), RBIs (54) and slugging percentage (.577). English led Tech in doubles (21), sac flies (5) and hit .315 overall on the year.
• Coach Hall and pitching coach Jason Howell will have a new closer in 2017. Last year’s closer Matthew Gorst, who was drafted in the 2016 MLB Draft, was lights out for Tech out of the `pen with 12 saves, two wins and a 0.55 ERA in 28 appearances.
• Tech has a total of 12 freshmen, including redshirt-freshman Jonathan Hughes, on the 2017 opening day roster this weekend.
• Georgia Tech has won 19 straight non-conference weekend games, including sweeping every non-conference series on the year (Atl. Challenge, UMBC, WCU and Coastal Carolina) in 2016. Tech’s last non-conference weekend loss was on Feb. 21, 2015 to Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C.

ATLANTA CHALLENGE

• For the second straight season, Georgia Tech opens up its campaign with the Atlanta Challenge, which includes three teams coming to Atlanta to compete against Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Kennesaw State over the opening weekend of play.
• At the 2016 Atlanta Challenge, the Yellow Jackets went 3-0 with wins over Purdue (5-2), Western Michigan (13-0) and VCU (9-1).
• In fact, the Yellow Jackets are 4-2 overall in season opening tournaments at home since 2014.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

• Georgia Tech will play not one, but two opponents for the first-time ever on opening weekend in 2017. The Yellow Jackets will play both BYU (Feb. 17) and Marshall (Feb. 18) on the diamond for the first time in the program’s history.

NO GIMMES ON OPENING WEEKEND

• Opening weekend will be no cake walk for the Yellow Jackets, as all three teams are coming off solid 2016 seasons.
• BYU (37-17) finished in a tie for the West Coast Conference regular season title and just missed out on the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars return WCC Freshman of the Year Keaton Kringlen.
• Marshall (34-21) went 21-9 in conference play last year to finish one game out of first-place in Conference USA. The Thundering Herd set a school record in wins with 34 on the season.
• Western Michigan (22-34) may have had a losing record, however, the Broncos got hot at the right time last year winning four of five games in the MAC Championship Tournament, including defeating heavily favored and top-seeded Kent State in the championship game to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

TAMING THE BRONCOS

• With their 13-0 win over the Western Michigan last year at the 2016 Atlanta Challenge, the Yellow Jackets improved to 3-0 all-time versus the Broncos. In fact, Georgia Tech has outscored WMU 33-10 over the three meetings between the two teams.

ON DECK

• The Yellow Jackets will hit the road for a midweek contest on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at Georgia Southern. The game time is set for 6 p.m. in Statesboro, Ga.
• Georgia Tech will then return home to host Youngstown State in a three-game non-conference weekend series on Feb. 24-26.